Chapter 1967: Real and Cruel

With hurried steps, he walked swiftly beneath the palace corridor. Zhao Pu's old legs had not been this nimble in years, and his strength was well controlled, his footsteps quiet, until he reached the side of the hall door, where he finally stopped.

Taking a few deep breaths to steady his rapid breathing, and making a slight adjustment to his cap and robes, Zhao Pu said to Yan Tuo, who followed at his side: "Announce to His Majesty that Zhao Pu requests an audience!"

"Wait a moment, Chancellor!" Yan Tuo bowed and entered the hall first.

There were truly few people in this world who could command Yan Tuo, and among the court officials, Zhao Pu was one. On ordinary days, one might still mind one's tone, but this was a time of crisis, so there was naturally no room for courtesy.

Before long, Yan Tuo emerged again — His Majesty would receive him, and requested that Chancellor Zhao enter the hall at once. Zhao Pu dared not delay, and subconsciously straightened his appearance once more before stepping forward with steady strides.

Zhao Pu knew Chuigong Hall intimately — he could find his bearings even with his eyes closed. But this time, entering this familiar hall, Zhao Pu paid extra attention, quickly and silently observing those within, especially frowning his old brows when he saw Wang Yucheng.

"Your minister pays respects to Your Majesty!" Approaching, Zhao Pu bowed deeply.

A cold, piercing gaze swept over Zhao Pu. Emperor Liu extended a hand and said with a stern face: "Be seated!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

However, no sooner had his backside touched the seat than he heard Emperor Liu ask coldly: "Minister Zhao, I hear from Wang Yucheng that he submitted several memorials to the court, laying out in full the ills of governance in the He-Long region. Is this so?"

"To answer Your Majesty, your minister has just looked into it — it is indeed so!" Zhao Pu said without haste.

"Then why have I not seen a single one of them? What complications lie in this? Is someone trying to deceive me?" Emperor Liu said coldly, his gaze as if it would devour a man.

"To answer Your Majesty!" Zhao Pu rose to his feet, his pace of speech unchanged: "Wang Yucheng's memorials were presented to the Hall of State Affairs, but after review, they were rejected by this old minister!"

"Oh?" Emperor Liu's old brows rose, and a deeper meaning clearly entered his eyes: "So it was Minister Zhao who intercepted them?"

"Your Majesty!" Seeing that the old emperor's heart was nearly filled with suspicion, Zhao Pu's tone finally grew somewhat urgent, and he clasped his hands: "This old minister believed that what Wang Yucheng memorialized at the time was biased, with an element of exaggeration. Moreover, the western campaign was then at a critical juncture — the court and the northwestern prefectures should all be of one mind. To avoid causing unnecessary repercussions and stirring unrest among the people, this old minister took it upon himself to suppress his memorials."

Hearing Zhao Pu's explanation, Emperor Liu's expression warmed somewhat, but his brows furrowed even more tightly — he felt something was off.

After a moment's thought, he said: "The various matters Wang Yucheng raised are of grave consequence. Even if you, Minister Zhao, had doubts, you should have sent someone to investigate and verify! Why did you neither inquire nor ask? If what he said were true, or even more serious, would that not be watching the fire from across the river, sitting by while the people suffer?"

"This was indeed this old minister's negligence!" Zhao Pu hastened to admit his fault: "This old minister has been focused on the grand picture of the nationwide tax reform, and thus was remiss in other matters."

At this point, Zhao Pu drew three memorials from his sleeve and held them up respectfully with both hands: "Your Majesty, these are what Wang Yucheng memorialized at the time. Please review them, Your Majesty!"

Seeing this, Emperor Liu waved his hand lightly, and Yan Tuo immediately went down to present the memorials. Emperor Liu's every move still carried his anger as he flipped through them rapidly — for a time, the only sound in the entire hall was the turning of pages. Looking at the contents of the memorials, Emperor Liu's old brows furrowed nearly to the point of distortion.

What the memorials said was much the same in substance as what Wang Yucheng had just presented in the hall, but there were ultimately some differences — the expressions were concise and to the point, lacking detail, and therefore appearing short on support, more like an official's wild conjecture and fantasy.

In his memorials, Wang Yucheng emphasized to the court the ills of the western campaign, urgently calling for an end to war and conscription, for sheathing the sword and cultivating culture, for relieving the people's distress and restoring their livelihood. Beyond pleading the people's grievances, the core lay in opposing the western campaign, hoping Emperor Liu would change course and no longer crave great achievements or boast of his merits.

Given the situation of the western campaign and the court's atmosphere at the time — and crucially, the state of him as emperor — when such a memorial was submitted, Emperor Liu would likely have had no reaction beyond fury. And for Wang Yucheng, regardless of whether his aim could be achieved, his head might well be forfeit. Over the past two years, the old emperor had suffered no small number of blows, and his heart had grown ever more obstinate — it was very hard for him to listen to unpleasant truths.

Even to this day, it was the same. The reason for the different reaction now was only that Wang Yucheng had presented his case before the court, with many details — and more importantly, the two examples he cited had deeply stung the old emperor.

Clearly, in the old emperor's heart, the fact that the western campaign had caused accumulated ills in He-Long and made the people's lives unbearable was not something hard to understand — when undertaking any great enterprise, how could there be no sacrifice, no cost? Back then, for unification, for the northern expedition, everyone had tightened their belts, and the people of the Great Han had suffered bitterly as well — but in the end, hadn't they all gotten through it?

In comparison, those greedy and arrogant officials, those lax and indulgent clerks who stirred up trouble, twisted the emperor's intentions, interpreted court policy to their own convenience, persecuted the people, and preyed upon the countryside — these were what truly enraged Emperor Liu.

Emperor Liu's anger and alarm also lay in the fact that from Wang Yucheng's memorial he saw things he did not wish to see — the bloody truth behind the glittering facade of the "Kaibao Golden Age." Wang Yucheng had torn away the disguise without mercy, exposing it before Emperor Liu's eyes.

The hall was utterly silent, until Emperor Liu set down the memorials and fell into deep thought. His gaze moved between Wang Yucheng and Zhao Pu, extremely complex. After pondering a moment, he said to Wang Yucheng: "I had thought Wang Yucheng had changed — it seems that was an illusion. The wind and sand of the northwest have not worn away your will and your backbone! To dare point directly at the errors of my decisions and the ills of my governance — looking across the entire court, I fear you alone, Wang Yucheng, would do so!"

"Your minister merely eats the sovereign's salary and serves the sovereign's cause!" Wang Yucheng replied with a calm expression.

"Are you truly not afraid of death?" Emperor Liu's gaze was deep, his voice even lower.

The threat of death still hung over Wang Yucheng. After a moment's hesitation, he said frankly: "To answer Your Majesty, your minister is afraid! But when I truly saw abandoned infants of the people in the Huang River, in the ditches and wilds of Shanzhou, I was no longer afraid."

"Heh heh!" Emperor Liu laughed again, but the laughter was somewhat desolate, tears welling in his eyes as he pointed a trembling finger at Wang Yucheng: "Your words are piercing my heart!"

"Your minister dares not!" Wang Yucheng's expression grew even calmer: "If my reckless words can move Your Majesty even slightly, and serve as a warning to the court, your minister will be satisfied!"

Hearing this, Emperor Liu fell silent for a moment, then looked to Zhao Pu — the old fellow stood waiting respectfully, showing not a trace of panic.

Emperor Liu had originally intended to rebuke someone over the interception of Wang Yucheng's memorials — not necessarily Zhao Pu, but he needed to vent. However, when Zhao Pu admitted it so readily, he suddenly realized something: as Chief Chancellor of the Hall of State Affairs, Zhao Pu inherently possessed the right to reject memorials, and those that reached Emperor Liu for review had already passed through one or even several rounds of screening.

In the past, when Emperor Liu was diligent in governance, he would periodically check them himself. But now, memorials and reports from the various ministries, bureaus, courts, and inspectorates, as well as local circuits, prefectures, and counties, numbered in the thousands each day — even if Emperor Liu tried to read them all, he could not.

Zhao Pu's suppression of Wang Yucheng's memorials was defensible under court regulations. More critically, Emperor Liu recalled a matter: because Wang Yucheng had repeatedly voiced opinions that did not please His Majesty, in his annoyance Emperor Liu had revoked Wang Yucheng's right to secret memorials — for Wang Yucheng to memorialize Emperor Liu, he had to go through the regular procedure.

As such, for Wang Yucheng's memorials to even reach the hands of Zhao Pu and the Crown Prince was already a matter of his reputation. Indeed, given his known temperament, it was even something of a surprise that he had managed to leave Longyou at all.

Thinking of this, Emperor Liu asked Wang Yucheng in a wistful tone: "When I summoned you back to the capital this time, I intended to reinstate you."